Beloved people of
God, grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.
AMEN.

The
Transfiguration of Jesus was a mountaintop experience to top all mountaintop
experiences for Peter, James, and John. Matthew tells us that Jesus “was transfigured before them, and his face
shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there
appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.” So moved was Peter
thathe said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you
wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for
Elijah.” Peter wanted to hang on to that glorious vision of Jesus. It was so
clear in that moment who Jesus was.

On President’s Day
my daughter Rachel and her husband Andrew and I did not have anywhere near as
dramatic a mountaintop experience as Peter, James, and John did. But we did have
what we might call a mountainside experience. We went cross-country skiing in
the SwampyLakes area, just off the highway on the way from
Bend up Mt.Bachelor. We were at almost the 6,000 foot
level. We enjoyed the gently falling snow, even though it limited our views of
the DeschutesRiverValley
and Mt.Bachelor. About half way
around our route we took a break in the Nordeen Shelter. A couple of other
skiers were there, and they said that on a clear day the view of the DeschutesRiverValley was impressive from the shelter.
Just as we were getting ready to resume skiing, the snow let up and the clouds
lifted just enough for us to look out over the river valley. We did not see a
vision of Jesus transfigured with Moses and Elijah beside him. Nonetheless, it
was a glorious view, and such a view from on high has a way of putting life in
perspective. We wanted to savor that moment longer; but the clouds moved back
in, it began snowing once again, and we resumed skiing. After a beautiful day of
skiing we went down the mountain to return to our daily
lives.

Moses, Elijah, and
Jesus— like many great religious leaders— ascended high mountains to gain
clarity on their God-given identity and mission. On the top of Mt. Sinai Moses
received from God the Law, specifically the Ten Commandments, and then came down
the mountain to share them with the people of God.

In 1 Kings 19 we
read that the Lord found the great prophet Elijah hiding in a cave on
Mt.Horeb (Mt.Sinai). The people of God had forsaken
their covenant with the Lord and killed the other prophets. “I alone am left,” said Elijah, “and they are seeking my life, to take it
away.” The Lord told him to go up and stand on the top of the mountain.
There the Lord spoke to him in “a sound
of sheer silence.” The Lord sent him down the mountain to finish his
prophetic work and assured Elijah that a faithful remnant of God’s people would
survive.

Jesus often went
up on mountains to pray and to clarify what God wanted him to do. For example,
in Luke 6:12–13 we read that before Jesus called his twelve disciples he went up
a mountain and spent the night in prayer. The Transfiguration was an opportunity
to take Peter, James, and John with him to clarify his identity and mission. In
the Sermon on the Mount Jesus instructed his disciples that he came not to
abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them. Jesus’ appearance with
Moses and Elijah confirmed that he was indeed the fulfillment of the law and the
prophets.

Although Peter
wanted to remain on the mountain and bask in the glory and clarity of that
transfiguration experience, the Lord had other plans. According to Matthew,
while Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the
cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the
Beloved; with him I am well-pleased; listen to him!” This same voice had
uttered these same words on the occasion of Jesus’ baptism. The only addition
here was the exhortation “listen to him!”
The disciples fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came,
gently touched them, and said to them, “Get up and do not be afraid.” When they
looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. The Lord could not have
made it any clearer— Jesus speaks for me. The disciples were to take their
marching orders from Jesus. In other words, the Lord clarified their identity
and mission as followers of Jesus.

Today we have all
sorts of voices of authority coming at us. We have never had so many sources of
news and information. Social media allow us to communicate quickly with people
all over the world. But it can be difficult to figure out who to listen to,
whose voice we can trust— especially when some authoritative voices have a
penchant for disseminating alternative facts and fake news or just have a hard
time telling the truth. A couple of weeks ago I sent a “thank you note” to
Senator Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina. I acknowledged that Senator Graham and I do
not agree on a number of issues. But I expressed appreciation for his efforts,
along with those of Senator John McCain’s, to call for sanity and truthfulness
in addressing the issues before us.

The
Transfiguration story makes clear that for followers of Jesus our primary voice
of authority is Jesus himself. When the Lord said to Peter, James, and John, “listen to him!”— he addressed them and
all the disciples of Jesuswho have
come after them. Listening to Jesus in the full sense is to hear the good news
of God’s love for us, to repent of where we have gone astray, and then to live
our lives accordingly. Listening to Jesus transfigures
lives.

Coming to church
each Sunday is in a sense an opportunity to go up the mountain with Jesus.
Worship is intended to help us gain clarity about Jesus’ identity and mission as
well as our own. The Lord wants us to come to church to gain that clarity. But
the Lord no more wants us to dwell in this sanctuary all week than the Lord
wanted Jesus and the disciples to remain on that mountain.

Most of life is
lived in the valleys of life. It can be challenging to make our way through life
on a daily basis. We can so easily get caught up in fear and anxiety. The level
of fear in our society seems to have increased in recent months. Understandably
it has increased among those subject to deportation and to persecution and
discrimination. But my sense is that fear is driving so many. Fear cuts across
the political and social spectrum. The Lord does not want people to live their
lives in fear. Again and again in the biblical testimony the people of God are
exhorted not to be afraid. Fear is debilitating. The Lord
wants disciples of Jesus to listen to him and follow him without fear through
the challenges of life in the valleys.

Following Jesus on
a daily basis is no easy task. What seems so clear on the mountain can be far
less clear in our daily lives, especially in turbulent times. As they were
coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered Peter, James, and John not to tell
anyone about the vision until the Son of Man had been raised from the dead.
Since Jesus has been raised from the dead, we do not have any such restriction.
The Lord wants us to proclaim the vision of who Jesus is and what he is about to
the whole world— and to do so in word and deed. Jesus’ vision of a community in
which God’s love reigns is precisely the kind of vision needed in our
time.

For the previous
four weeks our gospel readings were drawn from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’
teachings in the Sermon on the Mount can be challenging. But they are first and
foremost meant to be life-giving. God’s raising of Jesus from the dead was a
powerful affirmation of his life-giving teachings. Jesus envisions a kingdom—
perhaps in our time we could say a community or a society— in which people love
their enemies and pray for those who persecute them, in which every human being
is treated as a beloved child of God, in which reconciliation and justice are
top priorities, in which no one is viewed as a second class citizen, in which no
one needs to live in fear of the knock at the door, in which the vulnerable
among us are cared for, in which the most diverse people are eager to eat and
talk with one another.

Jesus’ vision of a
community ruled by God’s love can seem so clear on the mountain or in church on
Sunday, but this vision can become so clouded in our day to day lives. Putting
Jesus’ teachings into practice can be a daunting task, even when we have the
best of intentions. That is why it is so important to stay as close as we can to
Jesus on a daily basis. Especially in turbulent times, it is essential to
immerse ourselves in daily meditation on Jesus’ life and teachings, his
suffering and death, and his resurrection; it is essential to engage in regular
conversation with our brothers and sisters in Christ; it is essential to devote
ourselves to prayer; it is essential to ponder what it means to live out our
core values. Daily devotions are not just a nice idea; they help keep us close
to Jesus. Each day we need to ask: What does it mean to follow Jesus today? We
are also invited to lay all our fears before the Lord. Especially in times like
these, if we are too busy to meditate on Jesus, to engage in conversation with
fellow followers of Jesus, to devote ourselves to prayer, and to ponder our core
values, then we are indeed too busy.

The good news for
those who seek to follow Jesus through the valleys of life, however imperfectly
we may do so, is that we worship a God who is gracious and merciful, slow to
anger and eager to forgive. The last thing Jesus wants to do is to leave his
followers or any of God’s beloved children behind. That is why there is nothing
more important in our time and place than to listen to
Jesus.